The Decimal Point That Ruined Her

After dying in a psychiatric ward, Julie wakes back in her first year of graduate school, where Beth, her roommate, is sobbing over a tuition notice. In her first life, Julie gave Beth five thousand dollars and was repaid with stolen thesis data, a stolen paper, and a stolen place in the department. This time she hands over only one thousand dollars and asks for a promissory note.

Julie backs up every byte of her experimental data in three places, keeps her lab notebook on her at all times, and refuses to share her slides. Beth begins building a circle of allies, leaving Julie out, and whispers to the others that Julie is paranoid and unstable. Their advisor, Dr. Whitaker, who once believed Beth's tears, now questions Julie's collaboration and warns her that she cannot work in a vacuum.

Julie watches the lab turn against her, knowing exactly what Beth is capable of and what it cost her the first time.